Application Forms for Opening a Savings Bank Account to be Simplified

The Finance Ministry proposed banks to provide single page application forms for opening savings accounts or for taking small-ticket size loans. The proposal is expected to boost savings deposits growth and to spread financial inclusion in rural areas.

Long application forms are hard to understand while filling up the cumbersome details and this leads the prospective customers to make repeated rounds to the bank branch. Banks have already started working in this direction to make application forms simplified into a single page format to ensure opening an account becomes easy for customers. Customers of banks should be able to get their work finished in one or two visits to the branch.

The Finance Ministry said that, each family in the country should have at least one savings bank account, including migrant labourers in urban areas. Also, farm and non-farm households should have easy access to small-ticket size loans.

The know-Your-Customer (KYC) guidelines drafted by the Finance Ministry will make the account opening procedure easier for bank customers. The guidelines have suggested the customers to provide documents like photo ID card issued by post office; registered property document with photo ID; photo ID cards issued to students by recognized universities/institutes – all which could be used for identification purpose.